DIY Easy Faux Roman Shade

A little over a month ago, I had the pleasure of guest posting for Carrie at Lovely Etc. while she was spending time with her new little baby boy. I love guest posting and Carrie's blog is awesome, so it was a win-win! In case you missed that post, I thought I'd share my project - an easy DIY faux roman shade - over here too.

I work from home for my day job in healthcare, so that means I spend about eight hours a day in my office. Over the year or so we've lived here, I've had a blast turning it into a space that I love. It's light and bright - my favorite combination! And while bright is almost always a good thing, for a couple of hours in the afternoon the sun shines so brightly that it's blinding. I was in desperate need of a window treatment that would filter that bright sunlight, but not take away too much of that precious natural light from the one window I have in there.

To see more of my office, check out this post!

Since my desk sits under that window, traditional full-length curtains weren't an option, so I decided to DIY a simple faux roman shade for it. Y'all, this was such an easy project - and it's renter friendly for those of you in that category! This faux roman shade is perfect for a window where you don't necessarily need privacy, but do need to block some light. You'll see why in a minute.

Here are the supplies you'll need to make a faux roman shade:

• A piece of fabric cut 2" wider than the width of your window and 4" longer than the height of your window
• Sewing machine or hem tape (*affiliate link)
• Small tension rod (*affiliate link)
• Adhesive Velcro squares (*affiliate link)

Step 1: Hem your fabric on three sides so that it fits snugly inside the width and height of your window. I used a sewing machine, but if you're sewing-averse (or don't have one), iron on hem tape works great too. 

For the fourth side, create a small pocket that is slightly larger than the diameter of your small tension rod. You can see the pocket I made below on the right side of this photo and the next photo below. 

As a side note, I picked this piece of fabric up from the remnant bin at one of my favorite local fabric stores. The remnant bin is a great way to get a pretty piece of fabric for a deep discount for small projects like this!

Step 2: Lay your fabric down and create the folds for the roman shade. I didn't measure these - I eyeballed it and created two folds for the look I wanted. Adjust the folds according to how much of the window you want to cover in "default mode." Remember, this faux shade only has two settings - fully up or fully down - so plan your folds accordingly!

Step 3: While the fabric is laid flat and folded, take your adhesive velcro squares and stick them to the inside tops of the folds along the edges first (make sure you stick them in the areas that hold the weight of the folds!). These Velcro squares keep the folds in place once it's hanging up. Then add two or three more squares across the middle areas to support the rest of the width of the fabric folds. I used four squares total across each fold and that holds up the shade beautifully. The Velcro packaging says the adhesive is not made for fabric, but I decided to throw caution to the wind and try it ;). It's working great so far! If I ever feel like the adhesive isn't strong enough, I'll just add a dab or two of fabric glue to make 'em stick. (**Update! The velcro adhesive didn't end up being strong enough for the fabric, so I just dabbed a little fabric glue on them and they're good to go. Nothing like a little trial and error to get it right!)

I realize it's hard to understand where to attach the velcro in words, but here's one example of where I attached mine - hope this helps you visualize it! This is the view from the backside of the fabric.

Step 4: Insert your small tension rod and hang your pretty new faux roman shade! Here's my finished project:

I love how this turned out. It's perfect for my needs (and I hope a few of yours as well!) and it's simple - no fancy lining and sewing is optional! I used Velcro so that I'd have the ability to pull down the shade if I need to, but that's a rare need for my situation. Nearly all of the time it'll stay just like you see in the photo above. This project only took me about an hour, which was time well-spent for some much needed function and style for my naked window :). I hope y'all will try this project out next time you need a roman shade as a window treatment!

If you enjoyed this project, check out a few more of my favorite DIYs!

• DIY Upholstered Headboard - The Easy Way!
• Metal Card Catalog to Side Table Makeover
• How To Transform a Dated Brass Light Fixture

Living Room Fireplace Wall Makeover {Take Two}

Remember how back in the fall I gave this lovely brown tile wall a makeover with (temporary) headboard wallpaper? Well, it turned out that that idea was great in theory, but it turned out to be an epic fail. No matter what I tried, the adhesive just never held well and the wallpaper started falling down in strips. Not ideal.

So back to the drawing board I went. One of my original ideas was contact paper, but I never jumped on it until I discovered the beautiful options Design Your Wall had on their website. I posted about my finds on Facebook and soon after got an email from Dennia, the representative for d-c-fix (who is the contact paper supplier for Design Your Wall), asking if we might be able to work together. My answer? Why yes! I believe we can :).

A big thanks to d-c-fix for helping me solve this problem wall once and for all!

I chose the Whitewood Matte contact paper, which has a very subtle wood grain look to it. This is not your run of the mill contact paper, y'all, it's super high quality. It's made in Germany, so you know they've engineered this product beautifully!

Dennia was kind enough to send me a simple installation kit along with the instructions for how to apply it.

I loved having the smoother tool and razor handy. No need to provide my own special tools. (If you're looking for the installation kit on the Design Your Wall website, you won't find it yet - it's hopefully coming soon!) Those two things, plus a metal-edge ruler were all I needed to install the product.

First, I wiped down the tile with Windex to ensure there was no dust or grime that would mess with the adhesive, then I went to town installing it vertically, one sheet at a time, all the way across the wall. I followed the instructions on the packaging and found it to be very easy to do - using the smoother tool made it so I really didn't have issues with bubbles. I did have to reposition pieces a couple of times to make them straight, but that was an easy fix. I left some overhang on the top and bottom so I could trim it precisely at the edges so it would look flush. On Dennia's advice, I also overlapped the pieces a little bit at the seams so there wouldn't be any gaps where the pieces joined together.

When it came to trimming off the excess, I found that the easiest way to keep the razor going in a straight line was to press a metal-edge ruler against the wall and run the razor blade in-between.

Then after that installation, I was left with a beautiful white wall with a subtle wood grain texture. I think it's fabulous!

I also took down our big, black box of a TV and replaced it with a vintage map of Martha's Vineyard. I'm actually thinking about leaving it there and figuring out another place for the TV since we hardly ever watch it. It's just kind of an eyesore with all these cords hanging down the side...I'd much rather look at pretty art instead.

The contact paper brightens up the room so much and frames that fireplace nicely. I know it's really difficult to see the pretty wood grain texture in photos, but trust me, it's there. :) I choose to leave the tile alone around the fireplace since it's wood-burning and I don't know how that adhesive would react to heat.

I'm thrilled with the quality and look of this contact paper from d-c-fix and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is in the market - renters especially! It's such a great non-permanent solution that can really transform a room. I've got about half a roll of contact paper left and now I'm thinking about other places I can use it in our home. Time to do some brainstorming!



*I was generously provided with a roll of contact paper from d-c-fix for this project. It was a pleasure collaborating with them, but as always, my good opinion of them is all my own! See the footer of this blog for my full disclosure.

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DIY Upholstered Twin Headboards {The Easy Way!}

I've got an update for you on the twin bedroom makeover at the river house! Little by little, pieces have been arriving for the room and today I've got an update on the DIY I'm doing for it: upholstered headboards. This is my third crack (and fourth I guess, since there are two twin beds in this room) at upholstering a headboard and this time I cheated. Yep, that's right, I took the easy way and it was SO worth it!

Want to know the secret behind this DIY? Purchasing an inexpensive, pre-made upholstered headboard from...you'll never guess...Wal-mart, and reupholstering it in a pretty, bold fabric. Y'all, this is the simplest upholstery project ever. If you've always wanted to DIY an upholstered headboard, but have been fearful of the whole process of building the frame and then adding foam, batting and fabric, this project is for YOU.

Supplies you'll need:

• Modway Region Twin Upholstered Headboard*
• Staple gun
• Approximately one yard of fabric (mine is Sherpa Ikat Coastal from Fabric.com)
• Scissors

Here's what the upholstered headboard looks like right out of the box:

Boring and white and perfect for this project. At $59 (crazy, right?), this pre-made headboard was pretty much the same price as the wood, foam and batting I would've purchased to make a headboard from scratch, so buying it was a no brainer. The fabric is really cheap-looking polyester, but it doesn't matter because I covered it right up with pretty fabric! 

Upholstering this headboard was really straightforward. I started by placing the headboard face down on my fabric and lining it up on the pattern so it was straight and centered. Since this fabric has a repeat both vertically and horizontally, it was just a matter of shifting it around until it looked right.

Then I pulled the fabric from the edges onto the back of the headboard and added a single staple at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock. 

I turned the headboard over briefly after adding those four staples to make sure the fabric still looked centered and straight from the front, then continued to pull the fabric taut and staple all the way around.

Corners can be a little tricky, but the two-fold method I use works beautifully and looks very crisp from the front. Here's how I do it:

First I grabbed the loose fabric right at the corner and folded it so that the excess is on the underside. I pulled that piece tight and laid it down flat at a 45 degree angle.

Next, while holding down that piece, I grabbed the remaining loose fabric and folded it under so that the fold at the top edge was parallel to the fabric that's already stapled down. I then laid that down flat on the piece I was holding at a 45 degree angle. I used one hand to hold it all together while I used the other to add a few staples to keep everything in place.

These are the key staple placements to keep those folds in place:

It's kind of like wrapping a present, but you have to mess with the fabric a little bit to get it to lay smooth and flat.

Then I trimmed the excess fabric off from the edges, attached the legs and voila, I was done! 

Hello pretty headboard!

I love how they turned out. It was definitely worth it to take the shortcut with this project. The headboards really will be the focal point of the room with that zippy, fun fabric. Each one took maybe 30-45 minutes to do, so that means I whipped out two upholstered headboards in only a couple of hours - that's a winner in my DIY book! Even if you're not a DIYer, I encourage you to try this method if you're in the market for an inexpensive upholstered headboard (each one cost approximately $75 total). If you're feeling more adventurous and would like to build the frame yourself, check out my post on how to do that here.

I'll be putting the twin bedroom together this week. I can't wait to share the results with you soon!

Curious about the before photos and design plan for this room? Check out the intro post for details!

*Denotes affiliate link. When you make a purchase through that link, May Richer Fuller Be earns a small commission at no cost to you. Thanks for supporting this blog in that way!

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Before and After: Basement Bathroom Makeover

We've come a long way, folks. Operation "Hide the Bidet" in the guest bathroom/laundry room is complete! This is a big step in making the weirdest room in our house prettier and more functional. Let's take a look at where we started, shall we?

In case you missed the intro post to this room back in February, here's the quick version: our second bathroom and laundry room share a very awkward space in the basement. The landlord was clearly on a shoestring budget based on some of the fixture choices and didn't think the space through very well. BUT, he did decide to include a bidet - how lovely right?! Just kidding. For my European friends, I realize this isn't strange to you, but if you look closely, this bidet doesn't even function like a bidet - it has a down-facing faucet. It's pretty much useless and not a great use of space in a small home like ours.

I decided to do something about it and chose to figure out a way to hide the bidet and bring in more storage.

After lots of brainstorming, measuring, and brainstorming some more, I finally settled on a solution from good ole IKEA: a hacked VITTSJO shelving unit.

Here's the star of our show in all her glory...

For reference, the original IKEA VITTSJO looks like this:

I had to assemble it without the bottom shelf so it fit over top of the bidet. Once I put the shelving unit into place, it mostly concealed the bidet. To really make sure it was well-hidden, I installed that leftover solid bottom shelf in front of the unit by sitting it on top of the existing bottom brackets where it would've normally been installed. Then I secured it with a leftover shelf arm. That part's hard to explain in words, but take a look at the photo closely and I think you'll see what I mean.

That left me with a hidden bidet and three shelves of new storage in this bathroom/laundry room. Hooray! For now, I'm using SKUBB boxes for organization, but my next project is cleaning/organizing other closets in our house, so that may change. We'll see.

I'm storing our extra toilet paper in one box...

Laundry items and socks that are missing their other halves in another...(our dog, Jackson, likes to take socks out of the hamper and hide them all over the house, so we have an abundance of missing socks)

And extra guest towels in the last one.

I love having that stuff all put away and organized!

One unexpected fun addition to the room was the chance to hang this old framed print advertising a French restaurant. I found this in my parents' basement when we were moving last summer and hadn't found a good spot for it in our house...until now. After I took down the awkwardly high shelf that was on that wall, there was a perfect spot for art.

And who doesn't love fresh flowers in a bathroom? These pretty daffodils came from my parents' yard. Spring hasn't quite sprung here in Philly, but having these pretty things around sure makes it feel like it until flowers start blooming here :).

So that's my bathroom update for today. I'm so glad I can cross that one off the list.

Here's one more before and after of the space before I go!

Now onto more organization projects. Next on the list are those closets!

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Projects and Tutorials Page Updated!

In this week's edition of behind the scenes blog updates...

The Projects and Tutorials page has been updated! If you saw last week's post, you may remember that the Home Tour page page got updated to show our current home and I've been hard at work getting the projects and tutorials page up to date as well. It's got a brand new, streamlined look, so even if you've been over there before, I hope you'll stop by and see it. I added lots of new ones to the list since I realized that many of my favorites from the past year weren't there (boo!). It's always fun to comb through the archives, and now that I've been at this blogging thing for about 2.5 years, there's a lot to see!

In other news, I also added a new category in the navigation bar called Freebies. If you click on that, you can find all the free downloads I've posted over the years including the newest March wallpapers.

We're headed out on vacation this week, so I'll be popping in every now and again, but I'll mostly be unplugged. :) Enjoy the archives and I'll be back next week!

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A Look Back at 2014

'Tis the season for taking a look back over the past year, isn't it? I had fun spending an afternoon looking back through my blog posts of 2014, which were just as full of projects as they were BIG life changes and fun times. I'd love for you to take a look back at some highlights from this year with me before we jump into the new year in a couple short days!

We kicked off 2014 on a fabulous family vacation in beautiful St. Barth. All those photos and memories still make me smile :). If you're in the mood to escape the winter chill, some of these photos might help! Part 1 is here and part 2 is here.

15 Minute DIY: Spotted Trash Can

Hope you all had wonderful weekends! I'm easing into this week with a quick - and I mean 15 minutes quick - DIY project. I was feeling crafty last week and was in the mood for an easy project when I spotted (no pun intended!) the plain little trash can that sits under my desk in my office. About two years ago I painted it gray with some Annie Sloan chalk paint. The trash can was originally copper, which was actually quite lovely, but to make it fit in a bit more with the color scheme I had going in our old apartment, I painted it.

I always intended to do something more to it - give it a little pizzaz - but it's a trash can, so who cares right? That's not exactly a high priority item, so nothing ever happened. Then last week I came across not one, but two projects involving spots and thought BINGO. That's what I'm going to do to this trash can! Low time commitment, excellent results.

One of the inspirations was a project Caitlin Wilson did years ago. (Side note: does anyone else out there love her textile line as much as I do?) She randomly dotted some plain white slipcovers with black sharpie, which added instant awesomeness on a shoestring budget.

{Good Housekeeping}

And the other one is a similarly sharpie-dotted trash can from Bower Power.

{Bower Power}

Cute, yes?

Rather than a black sharpie, my weapon of choice for adding the spots was a white paint pen.

I doodled away for about 15 minutes and here are the results:

Imperfect, irregular spots that were just what I was hoping for. They're kind of leopard-y, kind of polka-dotty...just right in my book.

I plopped it back under my desk and now whenever I throw something out, it puts a little smile on my face. Apparently I'm that easy to please :). I know this next photo isn't all that exciting, but this is where it lives!

If you're really observant, you might've caught a glimpse of my $2 upcycled light fixture terrarium up there on my desk. That's its home for now, but it keeps moving around, so who knows where it'll live next!


For more photos of and projects related to my office, check out these two posts:

• Gold Shelving and Other Little Updates
• Mini Bulletin Board

Renter's Dilemma Update: Tile Wall Progress

Alternate title: "Operation Cover the Brown Tile Wall." 

Thanks again for all your comments and suggestions on how to lighten up the big ole wall o' tile we've got at the back of our living room. In case you missed the first post on this dilemma from last week, head over here for some background info. I made a decision on what to do with it and had a chance to make some progress over the past couple of days. So let's take a look, shall we?

As a reminder, here's what that wall o' tile looked like originally:

And here's where we are today:

Beadboard won out, my friends, and I am so happy with how it's looking!

It's not quite finished, but I wanted to give y'all an update and little knowhow on how I added this beadboard right over the existing tile without damaging it. I don't have a full step by step tutorial today because I'm still waiting on a couple of supplies to finish it properly, but here are a few pieces of info...

To keep things simple and DIY-able without breaking out some major power tools, I grabbed a $20 roll of allen + roth beadboard wallpaper from Lowe's rather than sheets of wood beadboard. I had never worked with this stuff before, but it worked great for this application! It's easy to cut with a box cutter or scissors, and I was able to install it all by myself while my husband was studying. Although I will say, it would be a little easier with two people working on it.

I started by cutting one strip to go over the mantle and then worked my way out from there. I made sure it was level vertically since our walls are definitely not straight after standing for nearly 150+ years!

The photo above is deceiving since I actually placed my first piece on the far left side of the mantle... (it's the one that looks taut in the photo below) and worked my way out from there to the left and right sides. I cut the pieces long so I would have room to adjust them, and then I trimmed the excess with my box cutter. That allowed the wallpaper to fit nice and snugly.

Eventually I got them all up there and wow, what a difference it made for the look of that side of our living room!

So much brighter. I don't even mind the tile surrounding the fireplace anymore. I was considering continuing the beadboard down there too, but I'm leaning against that now I think (opinions?).

Now, you might be asking how I attached the beadboard to the tile in a damage-free way. The answer? Right now, it's hanging up there with painter's tape! Yep, regular blue Scotch painter's tape. It's temporary though because I've got something else coming to replace it that I think is going to work even better. It'll hopefully smooth out any little wrinkles and keep it looking crisp. It's a product that's being delivered to my house as we speak, so once I know it works, I'll fill you in on all the details.

I'm really pleased with how it's turning out, and I can't wait to finish it up and then style up that mantle for fall! I've also got a couple of ideas on how to deal with the yucky vertical blinds situation, so stay tuned for an update on that soon.